Lamp Lodge

A renovated slum on Skid Row reopened as new housing for mentally ill homeless people Thursday, and Joe Clark, its new manager, hurried to make everything "picture perfect," with last-minute cleaning, setting out chairs and blowing up balloons. For Clark, LAMP Lodge was a new beginning, a world away from the time he wandered the streets of Skid Row, confused and disoriented. "I don't know how to feel," the quiet 35-year-old said when asked how he felt about his new post.

A respected skid row facility that provides shelter and counseling to homeless people became a site for drug dealing, leading to a double homicide inside the Lamp Lodge earlier this year, according to police detectives and court records. Los Angeles Police Department detectives allege that dealers sold rock cocaine and heroin out of the Lamp Lodge for months, a practice that ended after one of the alleged drug dealers and another man were shot to death there in April. Lamp officials said claims of widespread drug dealing at the facility are overblown.

A respected skid row facility that provides shelter and counseling to homeless people became a site for drug dealing, leading to a double homicide inside the Lamp Lodge earlier this year, according to police detectives and court records. Los Angeles Police Department detectives allege that dealers sold rock cocaine and heroin out of the Lamp Lodge for months, a practice that ended after one of the alleged drug dealers and another man were shot to death there in April. Lamp officials said claims of widespread drug dealing at the facility are overblown.

Two men were found shot to death inside a skid row hotel Sunday morning in what police said were the year's first slayings in downtown Los Angeles. The victims, who have not been identified, were found about 5 a.m. with multiple gunshot wounds at the Lamp Lodge, a three-story hotel near the intersection of Stanford Avenue and East 7th Street, police said. Neither of the men were staying at the hotel, said Los Angeles Police Department Det. Albert Marengo. One of the men was found inside the hotel's first-floor lounge, and the other had walked out of the hotel after the shooting and collapsed in the parking lot, Marengo said.

Two men were found shot to death inside a skid row hotel Sunday morning in what police said were the year's first slayings in downtown Los Angeles. The victims, who have not been identified, were found about 5 a.m. with multiple gunshot wounds at the Lamp Lodge, a three-story hotel near the intersection of Stanford Avenue and East 7th Street, police said. Neither of the men were staying at the hotel, said Los Angeles Police Department Det. Albert Marengo. One of the men was found inside the hotel's first-floor lounge, and the other had walked out of the hotel after the shooting and collapsed in the parking lot, Marengo said.

Sometimes Eric Stolp's head fills with voices. They squawk and yammer and scream this warning: Los Angeles' angels are bad angels, evil angels, the fallen angels of Satan. Watch his intense eyes scanning the grubby Skid Row skyline and you can almost see vulture-winged creatures hovering in the shadows, waiting for night to fall. Even in broad daylight, it's not hard to understand why Stolp itches to flee this Hieronymus Bosch landscape by catching a Greyhound for Maine.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $112,080 to LAMP, which operates a shelter on Los Angeles' Skid Row that houses, feeds and employs the mentally ill homeless, it was announced this week. LAMP plans to hire three staffers to work in the parks, missions, shelters and encampments on Skid Row to encourage the mentally ill to come into LAMP's shelter, said Executive Director Mollie Lowery.

LAMP, a Skid Row organization that houses, feeds and employs the mentally ill homeless, will use a federal housing grant to hire three of its residents to conduct outreach in local parks, missions, shelters and encampments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently awarded $112,080 to LAMP, allowing the organization to hire workers to encourage the mentally ill to come in off the streets to the day center at 627 San Julian St. for counseling and support services.

ON A BRIGHT, CLEAR MONDAY MORNING, DOWNTOWN PEDESTRIANS move briskly along the sidewalks of Figueroa Street. The glassy flanks of the modern office buildings reflect the warm sunlight into the recesses of the chilly shadows below. All seems early-business-day energy, confidence, purpose. Then comes Paul. He is small and slight, and in what ought to be his middle years. His dirty jacket is zipped to his chin. His right eye socket bulges with bandaging and is covered with a black patch.

America's homeless are set square in the public eye as a huddled mass of the drunk, drugged and mentally ill headed for Hades in a shopping cart. That is the short, misguided view of the visible minority. A truer, broader picture would be of the recovering homeless, who outnumber sidewalk sleepers 2-to-1, and for whom there are new and, one hopes, permanent exits from Skid Row.

Sometimes Eric Stolp's head fills with voices. They squawk and yammer and scream this warning: Los Angeles' angels are bad angels, evil angels, the fallen angels of Satan. Watch his intense eyes scanning the grubby Skid Row skyline and you can almost see vulture-winged creatures hovering in the shadows, waiting for night to fall. Even in broad daylight, it's not hard to understand why Stolp itches to flee this Hieronymus Bosch landscape by catching a Greyhound for Maine.

A renovated slum on Skid Row reopened as new housing for mentally ill homeless people Thursday, and Joe Clark, its new manager, hurried to make everything "picture perfect," with last-minute cleaning, setting out chairs and blowing up balloons. For Clark, LAMP Lodge was a new beginning, a world away from the time he wandered the streets of Skid Row, confused and disoriented. "I don't know how to feel," the quiet 35-year-old said when asked how he felt about his new post.